For Roosevelt Drive residents, flooding often a painful rite of spring

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OXFORD -- Denise Koundry, like many residents who live along the Housatonic River in Oxford, has notches on her backyard trees to gauge how high the water is.

After heavy rain on Sunday night, the water had gone up a few notches, and some of her neighbors closer to the river's edge began evacuating.

Just after midnight, the water crested over her retaining wall and began flooding the basement. She and her husband grabbed a few clothes, but "once it started coming in, it came very fast," she said. About two hours later, the water had reached the basement ceiling and was lapping against the first-floor floorboards.

She was trying to find a place her family could stay Monday afternoon because her heat, electricity and plumbing had stopped working.

Next door, neighbor Kathy Aimes stood on her driveway looking at what used to be her backyard but was now part of the river. The tip of a swing set poked out above the water. Her furnace and hot water heater were broken. She would be taking her three children to her parents' house later.

A Jeep Wrangler she had seen on the path around 2 a.m. was completely submerged under water nearby, she said. One of her neighbor's two cars -- a Ford Mustang and a pickup truck -- were swept away after he evacuated his house, she said.

At least five vehicles were swept into the rain-swollen Housatonic River in Oxford, and up to about 20 homes were awash in water, officials and residents said Monday.

"The cars could be behind the houses or they could have been swept down to Stratford," Oxford resident Trooper, Lt. Dan Semosky said. "They could be at the bottom of the river."

The vehicles that were washed away were all parked on driveways of homes along the river on Route 34, at the Oxford-Derby line, Semosky said. Officials were unable to find and notify the owners in time to move the vehicles before the rising water carried them off, he said.

Residents along Roosevelt Drive, who took the brunt of the flooding, said they also saw boats, boat docks, television sets, gas tanks and tool boxes floating by their flooded backyards.

Semosky said five families who live close to the river were evacuated Sunday night, after a day of warnings that such a step might be necessary. "...These are people who are used to this," Semosky said. "It happens to them at least once a year."

Greg Stevenson, 64, has a summer house along the river that he said did not have any damage. This flood is nothing compared to a swell in 1955, when the water rose to at least 30 feet, he said.

Other residents recalled similar, but less severe floods in 1982 and 2007.

But Oxford First Selectman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers said this is the worst flooding she has seen in 40 years.

A state trooper was stationed at the Stevenson Dam and occasionally had to make an announcement over the loudspeaker asking people to stop congregating by the dam because they posed a traffic hazard. Regardless, people parked on the side of the road and got out of their cars to watch the water gushing through the dam.

Koundry said a swarm of people parked outside her house all day to take photos and look at the damage.

Donna Stone, 59, said she can't turn on the electricity in her house because of all the water in the basement. She is camping out on the second floor. The flooding has gotten worse every year in the 15 years she has lived on Roosevelt Drive, she said.

A news crew from a New York City TV station had its camera trained on one of the cottages early in the day because it looked like it might get washed away, Semosky said. That home has sustained significant damage due to the flooding, said Joe Calabrese, administrative assistant to Drayton-Rogers.

"The house is creaking and the siding is coming off," he said.

But the cottage survived the flood.

By 3 p.m., water levels had dropped by at least 8 inches, Roberts said. But those evacuated most likely spent the night with friends or relatives since the town did not open an emergency shelter, Calabrese said.

"Things are getting better now and we'll be all right if the rain doesn't start again," Semosky said.